Colette closing on Northcote Road Post Reply

[coffeeandtea]

I own and run a business locally and see nothing wrong with a wish-list.

Yes some of the ideas are a bit silly, but where there’s demand, businesses will profit. I can think of a number of businesses that would do well here, some of which have been mentioned. So what is the issue with a wish-list?

Whilst I wish the multiple opticians etc well, I hardly think most of them will turn a profit to cover the obscene expenses one has to cover with a business here - particularly when you have 3 competitors practically next door.

But some new businesses do very, very well and that’s because there’s demand for it. It would be silly and big-headed for businesses to ignore what locals want - I didn’t and continue to work with the community on what we offer and we’ve managed to survive the pandemic, the ‘real world’ and turn a profit within less than a year of being open. It’s very easy to fall into the ‘retail and businesses know best’ - they don’t. Knowing your market and community is key to success. So why not listen to them?

[this_is_cat]

I do agree that a committee is a horrible idea…

A wish list on a forum is fine but it’s well beyond the (legal) reach of any group to start dictating who landlords can and can’t rent to

Someone suggested that 3 opticians is too many - well if that’s the case, one or more will close. But it’s scary to think that people would honestly want to ban them from opening in the first place because their gut feeling is that there won’t be enough demand!

And suggesting a local group could offer valuable insights to potential businesses - there are already quite a lot of companies who offer these services for a fee.
They survey locals, they compile data, they write reports
A retail company having the option of buying a well-researched report into the market dynamics of an area vs having to go to some sort of committee meeting of self-appointed locals who want to make demands of businesses - I know which I would rather do if I was running a retail company!

[Busy dad]

I wonder if Mr Putin calls Ukrainians nimbies because the Ukrainians don’t want what he wants.
It’s very insulting to call local residents rude names because they have different opinions to one’s self.

[this_is_cat]

Busy_dad

That’s possibly the most bizarre post I’ve seen on this site…
And horribly insensitive towards a nation of people who have had grotesque war crimes committed against them

[Terri_Daqtyl]

(btw I agree with the spirit of Busy Dad's message.)

Market forces will ultimately decide, but we will have to live through the wars of attrition between opticians or whatever before they conclude that Northcote Road is not working for them. This can take years.

But as previously stated, market forces are not the only force. Maybe committee is not the right word, but an influential lobby group could be. Key to the issue is shop ownership. A local consortium could rent shops from landlords and sublet them to independents. It would not take many shops of this kind to completely change the character of the street without having to veto a particular type of business.

And this could be part-sponsored by local estate agents who like to promote these areas as 'villages' with 'a range of interesting independent shops'. This is something that helps sell houses so they are likely to lend their support.

[this_is_cat]

So each shop rent is around £5k per month, rates are the same on top, so let’s assume this consortium rents 10 shops to make a meaningful impact on the make up of the street, that’s £100k per month, £1.2m per year

And they would recoup..? Half, all, 10% of this from subletting?

Let’s assume they can recoup an incredibly generous 75% from the shops they sublet to, that leaves a £300k shortfall each year for an estate agent to sponsor

Separately, estate agents are charging around 1.5% commission on each £1.5-2m house they sell, so taking a middle ground of £1.75m, that’s around £25k gross profit per sale. A very quick Google tells me that a typical estate agency chain makes around 15% profit, so that’s around £3.5k for the sale of a house

So if the ‘independent high street’ spiel worked enough to drive up demand, they would have sell nearly 100 extra houses per year, just to break even on their sponsorship of the high street scheme

Do you know see how utterly unworkable these ideas are..?

I’m all for hearing suggestions on how to make the area better, but these ideas don’t even stand up to the basic scrutiny

I’m sure I’ll be accused of ‘being negative’ now..!

[this_is_cat]

Oh, and I’m not sure they need help selling houses atm..!

Our neighbours house sold in 24 hours, after a bidding war of families and cash buyers
The agents are desperate for new houses to sell!

[Terri_Daqtyl]

These are interesting numbers.

Btw, not suggesting we want to help estate agents, but that estate agents should have an interest in helping the community by investing something in the areas they promote as being attactive shopping streets. But you would expecte businesses to pay their own business rates.

Even if a group started with one shop or two, that can make a difference. 6 or 8 would be a good target, but over time.

Perhaps Northcote Road could take inspiration from areas like the De Waldon estate which I believe engineers its mix of shops and businesses.

[Coffee_team]

The de Walden estate has nothing in common with Northcote road!
For starters, all the properties are owned by one multi-billionaire family which has owned the properties since the 1700s

They ‘engineer’ the area in so far as only allowing medical businesses to take leases on Harley street, and only allowing expensive shops on Marylebone high street
And this is done by a commercial team. Local residents don’t get a say

It couldn’t be replicated because as a couple of people pointed, there are multiple landlords along Northcote

[Needcoffeenow]

I think this is the purpose of Local Area Plans. They enable local communities to say what they want. There is a lot about them on the .gov website. It would be interesting to see what the LAP is for the area and what residents said when it was drawn up.

[Terri_Daqtyl]

That sounds interesting. De Walden estate yes, my sister-in-law worked for them and they did engineer shop tenancies. It would need to be done differently on Northcote obviously; maybe LAP is the way. Re Market forces: inspired by recent vote in Whitby re selling houses as second homes. Not currently enforceable, but may become so and likely to shape the future, despite multiple individual local vendors. The 1B nimby!

[Starr]

It's a very interesting discussion.
So many lovely High street shops in London are ruined by high rents.
What a shame to hear about the music shop and people spending on Amazon instead.
Don't get me started on those American Candy shops in Central London!
It all needs addressing.

[ally30_1998]

Possibly worth pointing out that while there are a lot of opticians opening up on Northcote Road, one of them , the one opening on the old Windfall site (back in the day it was an off licence) is actually just moving up from the junction by the lights.  Called Karen Lockyear and has been there for a while. 

I used specsavers for years but have switched to Lockyear for eyetests as they are very good for medical stuff and do high level scans.  My partner has issues with his sight and has needed referrals to specialists, and Karen is very knowledgeable and knows who does what at Moorfields etc.

If you have addtional medical issues that can affect your eyes (Diabetes, RA, etc) I can highly recommend them for the eye test,  even if you dont want to spend a fortune on glasses.

[WillowLDN]

Slight tangent folks - does anyone know who the agent is looking after the Colette property? 👀

[Scientist]

It's a very interesting discussion.
So many lovely High street shops in London are ruined by high rents.
What a shame to hear about the music shop and people spending on Amazon instead.
Don't get me started on those American Candy shops in Central London!
It all needs addressing.

This is why the independent bookshops on Northcote and Bellevue Roads closed - many 'customers' would come in to browse, then find the same books cheaper on - and subsequently order from - Amazon. The same people that want a vibrant, idiosyncratic, thriving, community-minded local shopping street also want to maximise their bang-for-buck. In the final analysis, the only shops which may afford to be on Northcote Road (and its ilk) will be chains and the odd independent shop that makes enough money to pay the very high rents. It's sad, but that's economics and market forces for you.